Black History Month

Sam Victorious! (From the mouths of babes.)

I spent the morning with the third, fourth, and fifth graders of Samuel H. Vick Elementary School, talking about the hometown hero for whom their school was named. My father was a Vick alum, which made the day even more special. The kids were curious and attentive and engaged, and their hands shot in the air when they recognized neighborhood landmarks like the Vick house and Mercy Hospital.

I’m grateful to Principal Annette Faison, Rev. H. Maurice Barnes and Gentleman’s Agreement, and Winstead United Methodist’s Hand in Hand partnership for the invitation, and to the students for being an awesome audience.

The current Vick Elementary building sits in the footprint of the old Charles H. Darden High School (my father’s alma mater) and briefly bore its name.

This young scholar gave a reporter an interview after. My heart nearly burst.

Valentines and Negro History Week.

In the lead-up to my February 8 talk at Wilson County Public Library, every day I’ll feature a post related to Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. Here, Rocky Branch 4-H Club celebrated Valentine’s Day and Negro History Week in February 1947.

Wilson Daily Times, 21 February 1947.

——

  • Francis Ashby — in the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: Joe Barnes, 82; wife Kizzie, 65; daughter Ester, 18; niece Gladys Smith, 14; grandchildren Francis, 7, and Bubble Ashby, 5; son S[illegible] Barnes, 24, and wife Bulah, 24.
  • George Reid
  • Ormond Ashby — “Bubble” Ashby, above?
  • Wadell Bagley
  • Mary E. Hinnant
  • Shirley Terrell
  • Louretha Renfrow — in the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farm laborer John Renfrow, 25; wife Eula Mae, 24; and children Louretha, 3, Edna Gray, 2, and Marie, 1.
  • Miss Wade — Helen T. Wade, home demonstration agent.

Black History Month 2024.

That’s me. On Carolina Street circa 1973, holding my red-black-and-green basketball. It surely comes as no surprise that I got this honest. That I was brewed and steeped from my earliest days. That Beverly and Rederick Henderson left nothing to chance or the Wilson City School System when it came to understanding and celebrating Black history and culture. Every day. Happy Black History Month tho.

Mount Pleasant Baptist Church’s Spiritual Lecture Series.

I’m thrilled to take part in Mount Pleasant Baptist Church’s Black History Month Spiritual Lecture Series this year. On Saturday, February 10, at 11:00 A.M., in keeping with the theme Preserve Your Roots, Ignite Your Future, I’ll be speaking on “Saving Sacred Spaces: How and Why We Must Preserve African American Church History.” I hope to see some of you in Raleigh.

“Trained Teachers and Trained Leaders”: Wilson County’s Rosenwald Schools.

I have a bottomless well of names to say and stories to tell about Wilson County, and I always look forward to Februarys at Wilson County Public Library. WCPL walks the talk of inclusion daily and on many paths, and I deeply appreciate their invitations to speak with my home folk about our community’s rich legacy.

Come out on Thursday, February 8, to learn about Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. Funded by Sears Roebuck magnate Julius Rosenwald, these two- and three-teacher schools became the hubs of their communities and forever changed the lives of their students.

Rooted in Faith: the 160 Year History of First African Baptist Church.

Not Wilson, but 25 miles down the road (and I’m sure with a Wilson link or two if I dug hard enough.) I hope to be able to take in this Wayne County Museum exhibit about venerable First African Baptist Church. Please add it to your Black History Month doings!

Lane Street Project: a return to Iredell County.

Volume 3, number 1 of The Iredell Historian arrived in my inbox last week, focusing largely on their Black History Month 2024 offerings. Iredell County Public Library’s programming is top-notch, and my long-time admiration has been solidified by their leading role in the study and reclamation of Statesville’s Green Street Cemetery.

As I’ve talked about here, my maternal grandmother was from Statesville, and we have innumerable relatives buried in Green Street. I’m super-excited, then, to have been invited by the library to talk about my family’s links to this sacred space.  (And hopeful that, one day, a member of the Lane Street Project’s descendant diaspora will return to Wilson with stories of their kin.)